Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’

President Obama flew into Havana on Sunday on Air Force One. In 1928 the last U.S. president to visit Cuba, Calvin Coolidge, sailed into Havana Harbor aboard a battleship. “Silent Cal” liked a good cigar, but he didn’t drink any rum, watch baseball, or dance the rumba. He addressed the Pan American Conference, promising the hemisphere “peace and goodwill,” but the Platt Amendment was in effect, and Cubans knew American forces could invade their nation at the drop of Mr. Coolidge’s homburg. The president promised Cubans the U.S. would lower the sugar tariff that crippled their economy, but it never happened — and the tariff was later raised.

Today’s Cubans hope this visit turns out better, but they remember the last one, even if we don’t.

President Obama made public remarks Tuesday on the need to curb America’s epidemic of gun violence.

“Our right to peaceful assembly — that right was robbed from moviegoers in Aurora, high schoolers in Columbine and from first graders in Newtown. First graders. And from every family who’d never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun.

Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.”

“We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence. We maybe can’t save everybody, but we can save some.”

“How did we get here? Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common sense reforms might not have stopped the latest massacre or the one before that, so why bother trying.”

“These are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch, but they’re also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support me doing.”

“I thanked President Obama for the United States’ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees. I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.”

Also awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize: Kailash Satyarthi of India, who has campaigned against child labor. The countries of the two Peace Prize winners are long-time antagonists.

In 1835 New York dairy farmer Thomas Meacham sent President Andrew Jackson a 1,400-pound wheel of cheese as a gift. It aged in the Entrance Hall of the White House for two years. On January 29, 1837 the President, as was the custom, invited the public to a reception in the East Room and offered a choice refreshment: Cheese. Hungry citizens finished the entire cheese in two hours, but its fragrance lingered in Entrance Hall for some time.

In an interview with AP’s Julie Pace on Friday, President Obama said he would “think about changing” the Washington NFL team’s racist name if he owned the pro football franchise. “I don’t know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real legitimate concerns that people have about these things,” said the president, who went on to praise the team’s loyal fan base.